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#17 Nebraska 49, Southern Miss 20
Saturday, Sept. 1, 2012
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)
Nebraska Head Coach Bo Pelini
Opening Statement
"I said going into the game that this would give us a starting
point, that's all it was. I just told the team, it gives us an assessment of
where we are and what we need to get better at. I thought there were a lot of
good things out there. I thought there were a lot of positives, but there's a
bunch we need to fix. The penalties, obviously we were good in the penalty
area, we didn't put the football on the ground, no turnovers. That's a pretty
good recipe for success. I thought we were very efficient on offense, and
I thought we executed pretty well most of the time on defense. They gave us
some things we didn't quite expect. I thought they did a nice job. They gave us
a variety of offense with a couple different quarterbacks, but I thought our
guys adjusted well...reacted well. We called a lot of defense in the game to
offset what they did, and I thought our guys handled that very well. We got a
lot of guys snaps. There were a lot of positives from our standpoint, but
really all that gave us was a starting point. We've got a lot of work to do
from here."
On Taylor Martinez's performance today
"It's what I expected from Taylor. I've been seeing a lot of
good things. I thought, to be efficient, he's got to handle the offense well. I
thought he directed things very well. He got us out of some bad plays and into
some right plays. For the most part, made good decisions. I know he has one
throw that we were lucky to get back, but for the most part, I thought he
played very well, very efficient. (He) made good decisions, and he distributed
the ball well. I thought there were a lot of positives there."
On what he saw in the process of developing defensive playmakers
"I thought it was good. I thought we played a pretty good number of guys.
It's not easy, because a lot of the things that we saw, especially some of the
schemes we saw up front. We had no idea going into the game really what to
expect. I thought our guys reacted pretty well to it and adjusted well. I
thought we played pretty well in the backend, the one touchdown pass I know
Drew (Andrew Green) would like back, that shouldn't have happened. But other
than that, I thought there were a lot of positives. I thought (Alonzo) Whaley
did some good things out there, (Corey) Cooper played well, Harvey Jackson...you
know, I thought we were pretty solid."
On what his concerns were defensively
"Anytime you get spread out all over the field, we really
didn't know what they were going to do with the quarterbacks. Toward the end of
the game there, end of the third quarter, fourth quarter, they were running a
wildcat-type offense with their quarterback. You just do the math. It's not
easy to deal with that, especially when you don't know what sets and what
structures they're going to do it out of. There were some adjustments that
needed to happen, and I thought our guys reacted pretty well. I thought we did
a lot of good things defensively. My biggest concern was on special teams, and
it wasn't really going in. We didn't execute very well. There is a lot of
things we need to shore up in the special teams area, but I do know this:
everything is very fixable. It was obvious breakdowns from our
standpoint."
On the status of Rex Burkhead
"He'll be fine. He's day-to-day, week-to-week. I don't think
it's anything long term. He'll be fine."
On what he told his team right before halftime
"I didn't tell them anything magical, it was just keep doing
what you're doing and stay the course. There was a couple things in that first
half that we'd obviously like back, but you stay the course. I felt real good
about where we were and how we were playing. I had a lot of confidence that we
were going to take care of business in the second half, and I think our players
felt good about it, too. I think they were mad at themselves, mad at the situation.
We kind of had control of the game and we let them back in. We can't do
that."
On how he thought some of the new receivers responded
"I think it's obvious. You saw a lot of guys make catches. I
don't know the number, but I thought it was pretty good across the board. We
had a lot of guys play, and I don't know that there was anybody in there that
didn't catch the football, or didn't have a catch. It's a pretty good job of
distributing the ball."